What is it about the shiny tin case, the art books, exclusive DLC items and other trinkets that clutter up our desk and shelves that make us shell out that extra $10 to $100 plus to pick up the collector’s edition of the latest game? I will be the first to admit that I’m enticed by them and even have a few of them on my own shelf. I have a Master Chief helmet, Dragon Age cloth map and Mass Effect 2 art book to name a few items from may latest collector’s editions purchases.

What caused me to sit back and evaluate the wisdom in it all is when I picked up the collector’s edition of Starcraft 2. In the past I’ve only purchased the collector’s edition when it was a franchise I loved to play and I was going to start the game on release date. In this case I picked it up just because it was “cool”. I’ve never finished on RTS in my life and as for the original Starcraft I never got past the 6th or 7th mission of the Terran campaign. I think more than anything collector’s editions awaken the geek collector in most of us who play games and developers know that. As we progress I think they are going to become more prevalent and outlandish as development studios attempt to soak every last dollar they can out of us. Night vision goggles or remote controlled camera car anyone? How about a nice dagger or boomerang to go on that shelf? I will most likely buy the collector’s edition of the next Mass Effect, Dragon Age and The Old Republic, but I think I will have to say no to Starcraft 2 and the rest of them. Let me know what your opinion on the matter is. All I can say is having a Thor pet in WOW would have been cool.